Whiffletree attachment



(No Model.)

.W. D". HOPKINS. WHIFFLETREE ATTACHMENT.

No. 558,954. Patented Apr. 28, 1896. 5

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

\VILLIAM D. HOPKINS, OF GOFFSTOWN, NEV HAMPSHIRE.

WHIFFLETREE ATTAC HM ENT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 558,954, dated April 28, 1896.

Application filed July 22, 1895. Serial No. 556,685. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, \VILLIAM D. HOPKINS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Goffstown, in the county of I-Iillsborough and State of New Hampshire, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in \Vhifiletree Attachments, and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

Much trouble and annoyance is caused when driving by the driving-reins becoming caught under either end of the whiffletree, and if the whiffletree becomes broken considerable danger is quite certain to result.

My invention relates to devices, in connection with a Whiffietree, for the purpose of averting the aboveqnentioned difficulties.

The objects of the invention are to provide a suitable attachment which will serve the above purposes and also limit the movement of a whiffletree, and to make the construction so simple and its application so easy that the device may be bought and attached by the buyer to any carriage.

The invention will be readily understood by reference to the drawings accompanying and'forming a part of the following specification and claim.

Of the drawings, Figure 1 consists of a shaft, its crossbar, whiffletree, a portion of .a tug-strap, and my improved attachment in its propor relative position, the same being shown in perspective, Fig. 2 being a detached View of my guard-yoke.

A represents the shaft of a wagon or carriage, B the cross-bar, and O the whiflietree.

To carry my invention into practice, I pro.- vide a device adapted for attachment to the shafts and cross-bar, which in form closely resembles a yoke, the bows of which are placed at right angles therewith and are secured one to one of the shafts and one to the cross-bar.

The yoke D and its bows E may be made in any desired form and of any material. An iron forging or a light malleable-iron casting or a brass casting will answer a good'purpose. Ordinarily a plate a is secured to the upper side of each shaft, directly over the mortise which receives the end of the cross-bar B, to add strength, and, if desired, when my invention is applied to new carriages the ends of one of the bows E of each yoke D may be secured to this plate a, in which case my improved attachment may be made of twisted wire, as seen in Fig. 2 of the drawings. The other bow of each yoke in such case will have a plate 6 attached to each of its ends, as shown, which offers a ready means for fastening to the crossbar.

The tug F is passed behind the forward portion of either bow E and under the yoke D for attachment to the whiffletree, and thus, if the driving-reins should be allowed to drop down upon the shafts, they would not come in contact with the whifiletree, and, as the bows E are made just wide enough to allow for the necessary movement of the whiffletree, if the latter should break it would still remain in place upon the cross-bar, owing to the position of the tug-strap F.

Having described my invention, what I claim is-- As a new article of manufacture, a whiffletree attachment consisting of a pair of wires twisted together at their central portions and having their extremities bent outwardly and then downwardly to form yokes, an attaching-plate secured to the extremities of one yoke and an attaching-plate secured to each end of the second yoke.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM D. HOPKINS. \Vitnesses:

J. B. THURsroN, DANIEL W. LANE. 

